Air-pipe connection for articulated cars



Aug. 21, 1928.

A. 'r. CLARK ET AL AIR PIPE CONNECTION {FOR ARTICULATED CARS Filed June 28, 1927 wwmto'u Patented Aug. 21, 1928.

ALFRED oLAn r; nanny 4a,: no nn sEn, LAND JOHN n1 Jasmin; orj nnnrmonn, mnnyrann,

j AIR-men CQNNECTIONiFOR ARTICULATED-CARS;

Application filed I'un'e 28, 1927. Serial na eoaioew The invention relates to articulated 'cars.

and has particular reference tomeans fOT IJI'O: vidi-ng continuity of the Compressed air lines throughout the sections of the car. i

It is Well known that the usual type of articulated car includes two or snore sections mounted upon trucks and pivotally-connected,' other trucks beingmounted beneath" the pivots or points of articu-l'ation:Y- Obviously, when a carof such construction passes over curved track the sectionsinust move relatives 1y at the points of articulation] Itis likee wise-Well known thatin accordance with mod; ernv practice the cars areequipped with air brakes, pneumatically operated door mechanism and sanding devices. To establish cone tinuity in the lines throughout the sectionsvof a car, it has been ordinarily the practiceto provide sections of; flexibljehose located beineath the pivotal connections 'ofethesections foryconnecting the rigid ainpipes mounted beneath the respective sections. -SLICh'flBXi ble hose, when used inthis manner, -is of considerable length asit niust bridgerthe truck located beneath or at the point of articulation of the car sections. Whilethecar- :isrtravel ling upon straight track, such an arrange ment may work satisfactorily but it has been discovered that Ew-hen rounding curves. -01" making turns the hose at the inner side of the curve frequently becomes buckled orvki-nked resulting always in undesired Wear andbreak ing down of the structure on account of the internal friction on the amaterial.- In some instances the kinking has been s'o abrupt that bursting of the hosehas resulted, causinga lay-up of the car for repairs. Theohj'ections to these occurrences are readily apparent as it Will be seen that a considerable financial loss is experienced owing to the high cost o finaintenance and the loss, of revenue Whilethe cari is being repaired. r a t It is with the above facts in vlew that We have designed the present invention WlHCh has for, its general object the provision 'ofa novelconstruction of connecting means which will avoid the above pointed out defects and disadvantages. i v a The object of the invention; morejspee'ifically stated,v is to provide pipe sections sta- 'i tionarily inountedsvithrespect to I the truck beneath the point of articulation of (fiansections and having'fieiribleconnectlonswith the vvherebyia much smaller length of hose {will be needed and Wherebykinking thereof unq der any circumstances will be eliminated.

Another object of the; invention to pro: vide lanalr pipaconnecting structure of this character in which the relative positions of therigid pipes carried by the car seotionsfthe rigid pipes carried by theltruck; and thelflexible connecting hose seotionsvvillbesuch that the latter will swing or tiltlaterally from the verticalirather than bend ina purely horizontal directionlas in the ordinaryconstruction,

the tinternal friction on, the inateri-algfrom v Whlch {the hosepsect ons arernade being there;

bylgreatly reduced-sov that the .life thereof will be lengthened, the strain on all the parts beingof; course correspondingly reduced 5 a An additional b ectof the: invention is to provide a connecting structure offthis charactor which will be simple andinexpensive to;

manufacture, easy to install", convenient to assemble, disassemble or. repair, positive in action,t leflicient and durable in service, andga;

general improvement in the .art;

Tor'the attainment of the Jforegoing and other 0b e'ets and advantages, the invention preferably consists in the details of construe tionand the arrangement and combination of parts to be hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and illustrated'in thegaccoinpanying draw ing in which:

a Figurel is a side elevation of the:

iembodinientxofthe; invention-showing it in applied position uponthe center truck of an articulated scar, portions of the car Sections and the truck being-illustrated by dot and "dash lines,- and Figure 2 is a horizontal sectiontakenon the line Q QofFi'gure llshowingia plan of. the

tr uck and pipe members mounted thereon Referring more particularly to the drawing, it will be observed -that ve have illustrated the invention asfapplied an artiou latedl car, construction of" the type disclosedl;in l

our IPatentwNo." 1,617,667 issued February 1 15th, 1927. Theca'r structure itselfis; indithe invention; other than to' explain [the tion; the numerals 1 and 25 designate the adja rigid pipes mounted beneath the car seetions cent end portions iof iartieula f -qar. sect on I catedonlyby dotand dashzlines in thepres- A ent instance inasmuch as it forms no "part of nismand the details thereof may obviously be-varied within wide limits, the elements described being mentioned onlyas defining an adequate foundation for the descriptive matter relating to the invent-ion to behereinafter set forth.

In cars of this type pipes are necessarily provided for the purpose of conducting compressed air to or from an air reservoir, control devices, door operating means, brake mechanism and sanding devices. In Figure 1' we have shown the carsections 1 and 2 as carrying pipes and 11 respectively. As amatter of fact, there are generally three of such pipes on each car section though there may be more v or less. It is true that Figure 1 discloses what dwelt upon.

appears to be'onlyone in each instance, the reason being that they are all generally. arranged in the same horizontal plane. This being the case the other pipes provided are located behind the two which are visible. However, the invention does not depend in any way upon the number of pipes asthe principle would be exactly the same if there were only one pipe. The usual terminal treatment of such pipes need not be mentioned herein inview of the fact that in accordance with the present invention the pipes 10 and 11 preferably extend fairly close to the adjacent ends of the car section and have their ends 12 of substantially U-shape and extending in opposite directions for areason to be explained. Clearly,it is immaterial what structure is provided for the purpose of holding the pipes 1.0 and 11 in placexthough such means may consist of the-brackets indi-* cated at 13. lVhatever arrangement of valves and control devices may be employed inconnection with the air system is 'of no consequence in this case and is therefore not Secured upon the truck 4 are '14; which would of course' 'correspond to the number of pipes '10 and '11 carried by the car sections and, as mentioned above,-'as there are usually three of such that numberis 1llusltrated: These pipes l tmay be. mounted-in any desired manner'as for instance by'eX- tending them through or clamping them between bracket elements or devices 15 fastened to the truck as,lfor example, t0" l3l16 members 9,fthe entire purposebeing' to retain the inetallicpipe members 14in properposition 'an'd'p'revent them from becoming displaced in service- The pipes Hare illustrated as invention or having-their central portions outwardly off- .set at 16 to-clear the pivotal connection 3 and not to interfere with'the movements.

p The pipes let-may or may not terminate at corresponding points but is preferable that the ends thereofbe located somewhere near vertically beneath the ends of the U-shaped portions 12 ofthe pipeslO and 11 for a reason which will become apparent.

For making the air lines continuous, we

provide-flexible hose members 17 which are connected in any suitable manner whatsoeverwith the ends of the U-shaped portions 12 of the pipes 10 and 11 and with theadjacent 2 ends of the corresponding pipeslt. It will be noted thatthese hose. members are curved outwardly in opposite directions, that is to say oppositely but longitudinally of the car so as to havesuiiicient length. to prevent being subjected to anyundue strain when pivotal movement'of the carsectionsoccurs. j It will be noted that whensu'ch movement does occur thehose members 17 will not bend horizontally as in ordinary arrangements but will simply swing laterally fromtheir normal vertical position with resultant change in curvatureinac'cordance with variations in the distances between thezends of the pipes 10 and 11 and the endslof the pipes 14 during travel of the car: upon curved track. Clearly, there willbe a total absence of excessive stretching I period so that thenecessity for making repairs or replacements will be rendered much lessfrequentthan isordinarily the case. It

is believed that the construction, operation and advantageswill be readilyapparent to .one skilled inthe art" without furtherexplanation.

While .we have shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be understood that the disclosure is merely an exemplification ofthe principles involved as theright is reserved to make all such changes in the details of construction .aswill widen the iieldof utility and increasethe adaptability of the deviceprovided such changes 'con-, stitute no departure from the spirit of the the scope ,ofthe claims hereunto appended.

.5 Having t-hus described the invention, we

claim v 1 iIn an articulated car embodying piVOtallyconnected'sections and a truck beneath the pivot,an air system including rigid pipes carried by the car sections, rigid pipes carried by the truck, and flexible connections between the first and second named pipes.

2. In an articulated car embodying pivotally connected sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system including rigid pipes mounted. beneath the car sections, other rigid pipes mounted on top of the truck, and means flexibly connecting the first and second named 1 es. V p In an articulated car including pivotally connected car sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system embodying rigid pipes mounted at the bottom of the car sections, other rigid pipes carried by the truck and located in a lower plane than said first named pipes, andflexible hose members connecting the firstand second named pipes.

4:. In an articulated car including pivotally connected car sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system embodying rigid pipes mounted at the bottom of the car sections, other rigid pipes carried by the truck and located in a lower plane than said first named pipes, and flexible hose members connecting the first and second named pipes, said first named pipes terminating substantially vertically above the secondnamed pipes.

5. Inan articulated car including pivotally connectedcar sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system embodying rigid pipes mounted at the bottom of the car'sections, other rigid pipes carried by the truck and located in. a lower plane than said first named pipes, and flexible hose members connecting the first and second named pipes, said first named pipes having their adjacent end portions of U-shape with the terminals extending in opposite directions.

t 6. In an articulated car including pivotally connected car sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system embodying rigid pipes mounted at the bottom of the car sections, other rigid pipes carried by the truck and located in a lower plane than said first named pipes, flexible hose members connecting the first and second named pipes, said first named pipes having their adjacent, end portions of U-shape with the terminals extending in op posite directions, and said flexible hose members being curved in opposite directions.

i 7 In an articulated carincluding pivotally connected car sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system embodying rigid pipes mounted at the bottom of the car sections, other rigid pipes carried by the truck 'andlocated in a lower plane than said first named pipes, flexible hose members connecting the first and second named pipes, said first named pipes having their adjacent endportions of U-shape with the terminals extending in opposite directions,and said flexible hose members being curved in opposite directions and intermediate portions laterally offset to avoid the pivotal connection of the truck with the car sections.

9. In an articulated car embodying pivotally connected sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system'including rigid pipes mounted beneaththe car sections, other rigid pipes mounted on top of the truck, means flexibly connecting the first and second named pipes, and means on the truck for securing the second named pipes in spaced relation.

'10. In an articulated car embodying pivotally connected sections, an air system including pipes carried by-the car sections, other pipes mounted at the pivot and movable rela tively to both car sections, and movable connections between the first and second named pipes.

. 11. In an articulated car embodying pivot ally connected sections, an air system IDGlllCb mg rig d pipes carried by the car sections, rigid pipes mounted beneath the pivot and movable with respect to both car sections, and

flexible connections between the first and second named pipes.

12. Inan articulated car embodyingpivot ally connected sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system including a pipe carried by each car section, a pipe carried by the truck, and flexible connections between the first and second named pipes. 1

13. (In an articulated car embodying pivotally connected sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system including pipes rigid- 1y mounted on the car. sections, other pipes rigidly mounted on the truck and located in a ditlerent plane from the first named pipes, and flexible members connecting the adjacent ends of the first and second named pipes. i

14. In an articulated car embodying pivotally connected sections and a truck beneath the pivot, an air system including pipes movable with the car sections, other pipes movable with the truck, and movable means connecting the first and second named pipes.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signa' tures. 1

ALFRED T. ori -inn. HENRY A. LEONHAUSER. JOHN R. JESTER. 

